US search engine giant Google Wednesday opened its first data centres in Asia to cater for soaring demand, and said it would double its planned investment in the Taiwan facility to $600 million.

Google inaugurated one of the new centres at an industrial park at Changhua in central Taiwan, and said a similar facility in Singapore was also up and running as of Wednesday.

The company last year announced plans to set up three data centres in Asia -- in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

But it later scrapped its plan for Hong Kong, citing land acquisition problems.

Despite the change of heart regarding Hong Kong, Google has decided to commit more resources to Asia where the number of Internet users -- mainly using smartphones and tablet computers -- has surged much faster than in other continents.

"While we've been busy building, the growth in Asia's Internet has been amazing," Joe Kava, Google's vice president of data centres, told guests at the inauguration.

"The number of Internet users in India doubled, from 100 million to 200 million. It took six years to achieve that milestone in the United States.

"Between July and September of this year alone, more than 600 million people in Asia landed on the mobile Internet for the first time. That's almost two Canadas," Kava said.

"And this growth probably won't slow for some time, since the majority of people that have yet to come online also happen to live in Asia."

During a rare media visit to Google's facilities, Kava outlined how the complex is "efficient and environmentally friendly".

For example, water is cooled at night when temperatures are lower and stored it in large insulated tanks before being used to cool servers during the day.

Kava at a press conference announced plans to double Google's investment in the Taiwan centre to $600 million, but declined to say how the extra spending would be used.

But Google officials said expansion of facilities at the Changhua centre, which covers 15 hectares (37 acres), was already under way.

The search engine giant has faced stiff competition in Asia, particularly in the China market.

Cloud firm Box raises $100 mnNew York (AFP) Dec 06, 2013
Cloud storage startup Box, launched from a college dorm in 2005, has raised $100 million in new capital to help fund a global expansion.
The latest funding gives Box, which competes with firms like Dropbox as well as Google and Microsoft, a value of some $2 billion, according to the news blog TechCrunch.
Box said in a statement late Thursday that the new capital comes from Japanese partn ... read more

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency.
All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement